


The Talk III

by The_Gong_of_Doom



Category: Friday Night Lights
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-07-03
Updated: 2013-07-13
Packaged: 2017-12-17 13:16:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,784
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/867966
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Gong_of_Doom/pseuds/The_Gong_of_Doom
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Eric and Tami talk about Julie and Matt and Tami talks with Julie.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

As Eric got into bed, Tami turned the page down in her book and rested it on her legs. Eric looked at her. “Uh oh.”

“What?”

“You’ve got that look.”

“What look?”

“You’re _‘we need to have a serious talk,’_ look which always seems to be about something I screwed up or how I said the wrong thing to Julie or someone or that I was rude to Buddy Garrity.”

Tami smiled and laughed. “Sugar, I don’t think you can possibly be rude enough to Buddy. Well, that’s not true, but he does get on our last nerves way too often. But I don’t think I’d be wrong in saying that you’re less polite to him when I’m not around.”

“Sometimes. He….all it is with Buddy is the damn team. I mean, I’m the same way, but it’s different. But Buddy’s not all bad.”

“No, but that tunnel vision he has about the Panthers is tiring. But this isn’t about Buddy or the team or something you’ve done wrong, it’s about Julie. And no, she hasn’t done anything wrong, well she let the garbage sit there for two days until I took it out, but you’ve done that too, so. Anyway, I’ve been thinking about her and Matt and….I think I should talk to her about going on the Pill and taking her to the clinic to get a prescription.”

“What pill?”

“The ‘Pill.’ Birth control.”

“Are you serious? No. Uh-uh, no ma’am.” Eric got out of bed and went into the bathroom. Tami heard the water running then Eric came back in with a glass of water. He drank half of it, and sat on the bed.

“Eric. Matt and Julie are having sex. And you can stick your head in the sand or stick your fingers in your ears but that isn’t going to make them stop or turn back time to before they had sex for the first time. This is happening and after what happened three weeks ago I talked with Julie, but I’ve been thinking about it and this is the logical thing to do.”

“They’re just kids, this is some puppy love infatuation, who kno—“

“ ** _Eric_**. They care about each other. A lot. Whether or not it’s love, I don’t know, but I wouldn’t say no to it. If it’s not in the house yet, it’s certainly on the front porch.”

“When you said you talked with Julie, what did you say?”

Tami sighed. “I asked if they love each other and Julie said that she loves Matt and Matt loves her. And I have no reason to doubt her. I asked her if they were using protection and she got a little squirrely, but I told her we needed to talk about this and she said they used condoms every time. I told her to be careful because boys try to….well you know how boys can be, ‘But I can’t feel anything after I put it on,’ and such, but that Matt was _very_ insistent on using them every time.  I told her that this doesn’t mean that even though she and Matt are together now if she doesn’t enjoy it or feel good she doesn’t have to have sex; it’s a choice she gets to make. And if she and Matt ever break up she doesn’t have to have sex with the boy after that. Or the one after that.

“Having sex isn’t the single nail you hang a relationship on. And if she feels that Matt or another boy is taking her for granted as far as sex goes, she doesn’t have to. It’s a choice every time. The barn door isn’t always open. And I guess I cried a little and Julie asked me why and I said it was because I loved her and that I wanted to protect her even though I couldn’t always do that and that I wanted her to wait. I told her that I wanted her to always feel like she could talk to me about _anything_ , even things that were very hard to talk about like sex. She said that she didn’t want to disappoint me and I told that she hadn’t and we hugged. And it’s that disappointment that’s been on my mind. I think you are disappointed with her and she knows it.”

“Babe, I walked in on my 17 year old daughter lying naked in bed with my starting quarterback.”

“Well, why did you walk in on them? The way Julie told me, you didn’t even knock, or if you did it was so light they didn’t hear you and you didn’t wait but just barged right on in. That’s rude. That’s not like you.”

“Look, I’d just been visiting Buddy Garrity in jail and hearing him try and explain why he was at the Landing Strip and how he caused $30,000 in damages to the place, so I guess I was a little impatient, because you said Lyla would be staying with us and I wanted to get home and have Julie help set things up.”

“You’ve been avoiding Julie ever since.”

“I have not.”

“You haven’t talked to her except to make some two word comment about something at dinner and you’ve blown off movie night the last two weeks by saying you had too much work to do. Matt and Julie aren’t doing anything we haven’t done.”

“Except have sex earlier than we did.”

“Oh my god. They had sex a whole year earlier than we did. Get my fainting couch. Kids are having sex at an earlier age; in fact Julie’s older than the average age for Texas.”

“Well good for her.”

“Oh stop it. Listen I know how part of you desperately wants to have sent Julie off to a convent when she was 6 years old and your feelings on what boys in high school can be like aren’t wrong, but I think we can agree that Matt Saracen is not like those boys. He’s certainly not like Tim Riggins.”

Eric ran his hand through his hair. “I’m sorry, it’s just….you know I don’t like to talk about this stuff. It’s, hell you aren’t the one who saw them in bed together. I almost drove off and left Julie there. I was in my car and her door was locked and she was standing there and I remember just being angry and ashamed and embarrassed and guilty and wanting to be anywhere other than there and I just about drove off and left her standing there. Yeah I know she was feeling the same things I was, but….”

Tami kissed Eric. “I know sugar.  Back to the topic at hand, while I am glad they’re using condoms and I do believe Julie about Matt's using them every single time, that’s no guarantee, right?”

“No, with Julie it was because we were both a little drunk and by the time we thought about it, well I sure wasn’t going to withdraw.” Eric smiled.

“True, but that’s what I’m getting to. If Julie is on the pill and they’re using condoms, that’s another layer of protection, so that if they get drunk or the condom breaks, they have that backup there. And if they do break up and Julie meets someone else, there’s no guarantee that guy will be as….reliable and trustworthy as Matt seems to be.”

Eric nodded. “You’re right. But why talk to me about this. Seems like you were gonna talk with Julie and take her to the clinic regardless.”

Tami frowned. “C’mon now, I wouldn’t do that. I’m talking to you about it for a couple of reasons, one so that I can tell you my reasons and that we can discuss like we’re doing now. Another is that I wasn’t going to talk with Julie and go to the clinic without telling you and then have you find the pills and freak out and get all full blown into ‘Coach Taylor’ mode with her, when  she wouldn’t have been doing anything wrong, it would have been on me for not telling you. And using birth control certainly isn’t something she should be ashamed of.”

“A’ight. When are you gonna talk to her and take her?”

“Wednesday after school.”


	2. Chapter 2

Wednesday afternoon Julie was sitting in her English Lit class , when a girl came in and handed a note to the teacher who read it and said, “Julie, you’re wanted in the office. Homework is to get through the first half of _The Killer Angels_.”

Julie gathered her things and made her way to the office, where a secretary directed her to sit outside the principal’s office. She could hear her mom inside talking with someone, and a few minutes later the door opened and two boys walked out not looking very happy, followed by Tami who watched them walk over and sign in the Detention Log. Tami turned and walked back, saying to Julie, “C’mon in,” and closed the door after Julie sat in one of the chairs in front of Tami’s desk. Tami’s eyes lit up, “Hey Jules, how’s your day been?”

“Well, getting out of English wasn’t so bad, I guess. Where’s dad?”

“Why would your father be here?”

“Well I’ve obviously done something wrong.”

“C’mon now, why would you think that?”

“Why else would you bring me to your office? It can’t be ‘cause you heard I got accepted to some college ‘cause I haven’t even thought of where I want to go, let alone fill out applications and stuff. And yes, I know I forgot about the trash, but you and dad would yell at me for that at home.”

Tami sighed and rolled her eyes. “Darlin’, you haven’t done anything wrong, I, well I’ve been thinking about how things have been for the past month and that there are some things I feel we could and should talk about. And there’s somewhere I think we need to go, so you and I are taking the rest of the school day off.”

“Seriously. We’re skipping school.”

“No. I am excusing you from attending the rest of your classes due to a family matter and since the principal happens to be your mother I am also leaving school to deal with said matter.”

“What about dad?”

“Well, it doesn’t involve football so….” Tami and Julie both smiled. “C’mon.”

They were in Tami’s car driving towards the Alamo Freeze when Tami said, “What’s so bad about your English Lit class? Mr. Conway is probably the best teacher and certainly the most popular and favorite teacher Dillon High has ever or will ever have. He’s the only teacher that the kids actually fight to get into his classes and I’ve heard stories and seen kids get in fights when someone insults him.”

“It’s not that the class is bad or anything, or that Mr. Conway is a bad teacher, I like him a lot, it’s….I don’t know he’s weird. No, that’s mean, I mean he is weird, but that’s not the right word. Julie tapped her fingers on the dashboard. “I mean, he treats us like adults. He doesn’t have a hall pass, you can get up and leave and go to the bathroom or whatever. Like the first couple days of class, he told us that he understood that we’re teenagers and we like to talk, but if we feel the absolute need to talk to someone else in class to quietly get up and leave the classroom. He said it offends him much more if you’re talking in his class. And I don’t know it’s like his class isn’t about English or literature at all, it’s about everything. It’s about life. Every so often he’ll go off on a tangent and kin fog lecture us on how we shouldn’t get a limo for prom and go to an expensive fancy restaurant, but take our car and go to McDonalds or the Alamo Freeze. I mean, we’re reading _The Killer Angels_ which is a really great book, but a lot of us already read it in history or social studies class. And we aren’t really talking about the content of the book or what it’s about, but we are.”

Tami pulled into the Alamo Freeze parking lot and the two Taylor women spent the next few minutes ordering and picking up their food then settling in at a table in the corner.

“So you were talking about _The Killer Angels_ in class.”

“Yeah, but not about what happened in the book, I mean we do talk about that, but….more about why the book even exists. Why would Schaara want to write fictional novel about the Battle of Gettysburg?”

“What do you think?”

“I don’t know I haven’t finished re-reading it yet. One of the things Mr. Conway said was that he knew a lot of us had read it for history and he wanted us to try and see if it worked as a novel all by itself, without the knowledge of everything else that happened around it.”

“He’s trying to get you to think outside the box or around the corner.”

“Yeah I figured that out, well Landry figured that and of course he told me. But then Mr. Conway spent three days playing us this one song, and not on a CD, he actually brought in a record player and an album.”

“ _Alice’s Restaurant Massacree_.”

“How did you know?”

Tami smiled, then sighed. “It was one of the first things I heard about from some parents, right after I was named principal.”

“What did they say?”

“Oh, they wanted to know why I hadn’t fired Mr. Conway and when I was going to fire him and did I know that he spent a whole week in his class playing this song that was all about how great communism is and how horrible democracy and America are and how Mr. Conway should be arrested and thrown in jail and how he was teaching filth and pornography and,” Tami waved her hands “things like that. What did you think?”

“Of what, the song?”

“The whole thing. The record player, the record, the song, the discussion, what you did related to that for his class.”

Julie sucked on her straw, drawing some of her vanilla milkshake into her mouth, then swallowed while she chewed on the straw and thought. “It was pretty neat. The song is about democracy and America and freedom of speech and using free speech as a way to protest and dissent and it’s about war, not just the Vietnam War, and about authority and how the authorities or the people in power really don’t like it when you make fun of them. The first time you listen to it you think it’s just about one thing, but you listen to it over and over and it’s like there’s a bunch of different layers to it. And before he brought it in Mr. Conway told us to pick out a song that we liked and print out the lyrics and he made copies for everyone in class and we had to get up and read them aloud and say what we thought the lyrics meant and then everyone got their say. And it was funny what some people chose for their song. Some of the songs….ugh.” Julie frowned. “It’s not that I don’t like some rap music, but the lyrics were gross. Whoever wrote it really liked the ‘N word’ which I don’t get because that’s like the one word that no one is allowed to use, except I guess black people are allowed to use it, but black people hate it. A couple people said that rappers use it to make it not offensive, but it isn’t working as far as I can tell. I mean, Smash got suspended for getting in a fight last year after that kid called him---well you know. So, what did you want to talk about?”

“Well, actually I’d like to keep talking about your English Lit class because it sounds very interesting, and you’re right, Mr. Conway is teaching you about life, about the choices that you have, but he’s also getting the actual English Lit bits in there as well. You _do_ have vocabulary tests in his class, don’t you?”

“Every other week. He says it’s important to have a solid vocabulary, even if you never use it, because if you go to say France or Germany, even if you don’t speak the language a good vocabulary can help out. Maybe. I’m kind of doubtful about that.”

Tami smiled. “He’s a very good teacher and I’m glad you enjoy his class, and maybe sometimes you look forward to it. Now, you may not want to talk about what I’m gonna talk about, but I’d like you to listen and then, we’ll go from there.

Tami took a deep breath.” I’ve been thinking about our talk a couple of weeks ago, about you and Matt and y’all’s relationship and sex and protection. Thinking about the two of you and about your father and me and our relationship when we were around your age. Your dad and I were a little bit older than you and Matt when we started dating and well, we didn’t wait until we got married to have sex, but just like you and Matt we used protection every time. Condoms. Which is good, but there can be accidents. It can break or you both can be so in the moment that you forget. It happens and it’s nothing to be ashamed of, but unless you have talked about it and decided that you want to try and get pregnant or to have a baby, it’s important to use a condom ever y time.

“But the Pill isn’t just an extra layer of protection or birth control. It can also help if your period is irregular, it can help get your body on a pretty regular schedule. But also….if something happens and you and Matt aren’t together and you meet someone else, that man might not be as….as careful as Matt is or as honest. And if you’re on the Pill you already have a wall set up. But it’s like I said earlier, if you are on the Pill that doesn’t mean you have to sleep with the guy you meet after Matt or with any guy if you don’t want to. It’s always going to be your choice. And we’re always gonna support you.”

“Why isn’t dad here right now with us? Why is it just you and me? Or did you already talk with him?”

“Honey, you know how uncomfortable you dad can get talking about this stuff or being around when people are talking about sex.”

“Well he felt comfortable enough to barge right on in Matt’s house a few weeks ago.”

Tami sighed. “Please don’t get snarky.”

Julie rolled her eyes. “Well that’s what he did.”

“You don’t think he feels bad about that?”

“If he feels bad then why hasn’t he apologized?”

“And how do you think that would go, Jules? Wouldn’t that pretty much be the most embarrassing thing you ever had to be a part of? Think about it, your dad hasn’t said more than a couple of words to you every day since he barged in Matt’s house. Do you really want him to apologize to you? You know that he will if you want him to, but think about this. He’s just as if not more embarrassed about this than you are.

“This is very hard for him. Part of him is _always_ going to see you as a little girl and that runs right into you being in high school and having a boyfriend and it hurts. That doesn’t mean you’re doing something wrong or that he doesn’t want you and Matt to see each other, it’s just a sign of your starting to leave the nest and fly a little bit on your own. He just wants to protect you so much because he loves you and cares about so much, but he’s learning that he can’t protect all the time. And that’s a hard thing. A very hard thing. And yes, part of him knows that Matt is protecting you, but it isn’t quite the same thing. He is sorry about what happened, and you know this, and you know he’ll find some way to tell you.

“Your father and I did talk about this, a couple of nights ago, and he wasn’t exactly in favor of it.”

“Really, mom? I’m sure he was all, ‘ _No way, not gonna happen_ ’ and grabbing at his hair and then he went into the bathroom to get a glass of water and grumble to himself for a minute.”

“What did I say about not getting snarky?”

“Oh come on. I’m not allowed to be upset about my dad walking in on me and Matt in bed? What do you think would have happened if I had said to you that morning, ‘ _I might be a little late tonight because Matt and I are going to have sex at his grandmother’s house while she’s at the doctor._ ’ I’m sure that would have gone over just great. You’d have kept me in your office the whole day.”

Tami ran her hand over her face. “Julie. I didn’t say you couldn’t be upset over what happened. But how long are you going to carry it around with you? Your dad has enough problems to deal with because of football and he doesn’t need you angry or pissed off at him. Y’all are like two big thunderstorms headin’ straight for the farm, and I am not planning on getting rained or hailed on. You’re right, he wasn’t in favor of my idea and he did get some water, but then we talked about it and I laid out my feelings and thoughts about why I felt you should be on the Pill. He had some thoughts of his own and they went beyond just ‘ _No, no, no, no_.’ By the time we were done he agreed with me. But I don’t think he was as against it as you seem to think, part of it is due to what I said earlier, this is a hard thing for him to see you growing up and becoming a woman. It’s why he was so mean to Matt at first when you two started hanging out, he knows what  teenage boys can be like and how bad they can be and that football players can be even worse, they can have this sick sense of entitlement.”

“Matt is **not** like that.” Julie looked down and toyed with the remains of her sundae with her spoon. “A couple years ago, Matt and I decided to have sex….well I said that we should have sex an—“

“Was this when I saw him and Landry buying condoms in the grocery store?”

“Yeah. We’d been dating for like three months and been an official couple for two months and I don’t know I felt like it was time to have sex. And I was so scared when you told me about Matt and Landry, I thought you’d tell dad and he’d I don’t know I thought he’d go over to Matt’s house and tell him never to come near me or get a restraining order.” A tear ran down Julie’s cheek, then another.

Tami reached across the table and took Julie’s hand. “Sweetie, your dad would never do that. We were worried about where you were and angry that you’d lied to us, but he never would have done that. I wouldn’t have let him. He might have actually started over to Matt’s house but he’d have thought better of it before he got there.”

“It’s funny, Tyra and I were at Target and looking at lingerie and she tossed a thong to me, the one that dad found, and I guess she could tell that I really didn’t want to do it, at least not then, and she said I didn’t have to have sex, that there was always going to be a supply of horny Dillon football players.” Tami and Julie both giggled, and Julie wiped her face with a napkin.

“Matt and I were in the cabin and I was sort of taking the lead, except I don’t know I started feeling a little sick and nervous and I wanted to stop but I couldn’t, you know. I wanted something to happen, someone to knock on the door or something to fall off the wall, anything, and I started kind of babbling about how I didn’t like this deer head staring at us or that it smelled like wet dog and Matt said that we didn’t have to do it, we could just hang out. He knew that I didn’t feel comfortable about it, and….he was really sweet about it.”

Tami smiled. “Matt is a very nice young man and I’m glad that he is how he is. And you know that your dad likes him, don’t you?”

“Yeah, but it helps that his grandmother thinks dad walks on water, well she used to.” Julie giggled.

“What happened?”

“It was a maybe a month ago, dad and I were at the grocery store and he crashed his cart into Mrs. Saracen’s and Matt was with her. And dad got all Mr. Charming, you know, ‘ _Mrs. Saracen, how are you doing, ma’am’_ and smiling, I swear he had this look on his face like he was waiting for her to cover him with kisses or something. And she went **off** on dad. She was all, ‘ _Well, I’ll tell you Coach Taylor, I’d be doing a **heck** of a lot better if you had Matthew back at quarterback. What can you possibly have been thinking? This boy won State for you.’_ And the look on dad’s face. It was like, ‘ _What's happening this woman loves me she **LOVES ME!** What did I do wrong?’_ I could kind of see dad as a ten year old or something getting scolded for playing football in his parents’ house or something. But it ended okay, Mrs. Saracen forgave dad, or they came to an understanding.”

“Why didn’t you tell me this before now?”

“Because I can tell by the look on your face that you’re gonna let it out to dad at some point, when you two are arguing about something, and he’s gonna be confused and you’re gonna tell him that I told you and he’s gonna be mad at me instead of you.”

“Oh he’s not going to get mad at you. Something else I wanted to say about your dad and the Pill. Another reason I talked to him is because if you do get a prescription I didn’t want him to be in the dark and walk into the bathroom and see the container lying out on the counter and freak out and then have you freak out and storm off and have the two of you refusing to do more than scowl at each other for a month. And this will be in your control. If you decide to, I’ll go with you to the clinic to set up your prescription and pay for it, but after this one it’ll be your responsibility and your choice. There might be some issues  as your body adjusts but the person at the clinic knows more about that than I do, but if you’re on it and you feel strange or something happens, you let me or your dad know, okay?”

“You know I’m gonna tell you, even if you I don’t know, go visit Aunt Shelley or something, I’d call you and tell you….it would just be too embarrassing to tell dad.”

“Okay, but he will know that you’re on the Pill and he’s gonna read up on what that means.”

“Ewwwww. Gross.”

“So being informed about something is gross?”

“No, it’s just, I mean it’d be like dad having a copy of _Sex for Dummies_ or having him teach the sex education part of our health class.”

Tami smiled. “Funny.”

“What?”

“Your dad did teach sex ed and he is listed as a substitute teacher for health classes. And before you ask, it was right after he graduated from college. He was the quarterback coach at South Texas and was teaching health and PE at the high school and middle school.” Tami wiped her mouth with a napkin, “Ready to do this?”

“Yeah.”

THE END


End file.
